Archive for February, 2009
Waitangi Day 2009
On Friday, I got to attend yet another exciting music event called Native Noise ‘09 in Auckland. The day was a little more significant than just another great line-up of New Zealand artists.
Native Noise 2009
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Apply Now For the Fulbright-mtvU Grant
Audio Flipbook: Choosing Mexico’s Music
This portrait of Edgar Alejandro “Alex” Paz is part of a series of interviews I did with students at the School of Mexican Music in Mexico City. Alex and his classmates come from diverse backgrounds and bring a wide range of goals to the study of Mexican music. Some are looking for local fame, or at least a career of gigging at restaurants and weddings. Others want to become more versatile musicians. Some are diehard Mexican music fans since childhood, and others, like Alex, had to warm up to it.
In this interview, Alex tells us about his dilemma: finding his ideal career, and an appreciation for his own country, in a city that bombards him with a world of choices. He worries about making a living, but cares more about holding down a job where he can “find creativity.” Here he talks about his journey to appreciating Mexican music.
The Tamani for Best New Artist Goes to….
Mah Bara Soumano!
Ten hours before Mah won the award, I had the pleasure of meeting her. After a guitar lesson, Lamine Soumano drove me out on his motorcycle to buy a ticket of my own to the ceremony, and we picked up Mah’s entry badge while there.
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Tribal Pride 2009
On my 10th day in New Zealand, I learned 3 very important lessons:
1) Due to a combination of thinner ozone and the relative closeness of the sun to the earth during the “southern summer”, it is very, very easy to burn here,
2) In spite of its apparent proximity on a map, Ngaruawahia is not that close to the Hopuhopu sports complex, and
3)In spite of 1 and 2, Tribal Pride 2009 was a wonderful start to my time in New Zealand.
After spending my first days here desperately searching for a flatmate, getting a phone, and taking care of all of the other details of settling into a new country, I was more than ready to jump right in and start to get familiar with the Maori and Pacific music scene. With this energy and excitement I bought a ticket to Tribal Pride 2009. Tribal Pride is a 12-hour open-air, drug and alcohol free concert designed to “Celebrate 150 years of the King movement, reinforce Tribal pride in rangatahi/youth, and promote family health and well being in opposition to violence”, according to the program.
Tribal Pride 2009
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